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Why I came to Carbon
I joined Carbon in January because I could see something here that felt genuinely different. After 25 years in the insurance market, including nearly two decades at Hiscox across finance, operations and strategy, and six years as COO for DUAL UK and Europe, I have seen a lot of businesses talk about growth, innovation and data. What stood out at Carbon was that the foundations were already in place - the ambition, the culture, the technology, the pace and, importantly, the discipline and desire to use all of that to drive the company forwards.
Seven months in, that first impression has only strengthened. My role as COO covers technology, data, operations, change, claims, corporate governance and risk & compliance - the engine room of the business. It is a fast-paced environment which suits me well as I like momentum. I like clarity and getting things done. And what excites me most is that Carbon has built an ecosystem where those fundamentals are not treated as back-office functions; they are central to how we operate, how we support underwriters with analytics and insights, and how we create value for our partners and capacity providers.
Our impressive growth story
The growth story is impossible to ignore. Carbon has grown premium from £15m to £450m over the past five years. That is a huge trajectory by any measure. But what impressed me was not just the number; it was what sits underneath it. Growth at that speed can expose weaknesses very quickly if the operating model, data, and controls are not keeping up. At Carbon, I found a business that had already made serious investment in the infrastructure needed to scale properly.
At the centre of that is Graphene, our data ecosystem and digital spine. It gives external partners, in-house underwriters and capacity providers a single source of truth with analytics and insights embedded at its core. That matters because it means decisions can be made from consistent, validated, real-time information rather than from fragmented data, manual workarounds, or instinct alone. For me, that is where Carbon starts to feel genuinely market-leading, and it will be key in helping us continue to navigate the soft market cycle.
Why this matters now
Most players in the market talk about being data driven, but saying it and actually having the infrastructure, people, and discipline to act on data every day are very different things. That gap is going to become more obvious as competition intensifies, pricing pressure increases, and more firms look to AI and analytics for an edge.
A lot of businesses are still held back by legacy technology and inaccessible, inconsistent data sitting across multiple platforms. If the data cannot be found, trusted and used quickly, the opportunity is lost.
That is why I think Graphene is such an important differentiator. It ingests, standardises and validates data in real time, then turns that data into tailored analytics which different teams can actually use. That is our “moat” setting us apart from the wider market. The result is that we can invest our time and effort on increasing our competitive advantage, using new tools and AI solutions to outprice a softening underwriting market and maintain our lead over the competition.
Getting the culture and people right
Technology is important but on its own it is never enough. This is why culture is even more important to me. At Carbon, there is energy and a willingness to challenge how things have always been done and to move quickly when the insight is clear.
I care as much about culture as I do about operational efficiency and spend a lot of my time on making sure the fundamentals are aligned. For instance, is our data trustworthy? Are our people capable of efficiently interfacing with it to turn the data into value for our partners and capacity providers? Does our culture let them quickly act on insight and continue to foster innovative ideas across our whole organisation? That matters to me because culture and execution are directly linked. It is how you create confidence and the kind of environment where people can do their best work.
A great example of how we marry culture and a focus on results is our quant team. Embedded across the business, they are central in our efforts to improved delegated authority underwriting, sitting between the raw data and the underwriters. Their job is to identify the trends in the data which justify changes to an underwriting decision. It is a structure I have not seen effectively replicated elsewhere in the market, and it's one of the clearest reasons I believe Carbon is genuinely ahead.
Beyond Carbon
Alongside my responsibilities at Carbon, I sit as a trustee of a charity called Fumble and I've spent several years as a Pilotlight volunteer, working through intensive coaching engagements with charity leaders to help shape their strategies.
Additionally, I have long been passionate about mentoring and supporting others in the market, particularly women, and this is an area I dedicate significant energy towards. Strong culture is one of the most important ingredients for effective corporate governance and that is something I try and instil in all my mentees.
It is important to me that Carbon also lives these values, and I am pleased to say the company does.
Final thoughts
For delegated authority underwriting, I think the direction of travel is clear. The winners will be the businesses that can combine underwriting expertise with trusted data, fast insight and strong execution. The market does not need more noise about innovation; it needs proof that better information leads to better decisions and better outcomes.
That is what excites me about Carbon. We are not starting from theory. We have the platform, the people and the pace to keep building. My focus now is on making sure the engine scales with the ambition - strengthening the foundations, sharpening the operating model, and helping the business move at speed without losing control. That is a big challenge, but it is exactly the kind of challenge I came here for. And I am lucky I get to do it with a great bunch of people!
